Getting process right – breaking unseen barriers to participation

Until recently, our coaching team had worked off a purely informal basis for coaching requests: when people wanted coaching they would approach one of the team and kick off a relationship. And for the most part that seemed to be working. But there was a massive disconnect between people who indicated an interest in coaching, and the number of people actually receiving coaching.

So we put together a really simple Google Form, and put it out there for people to impersonally request coaching. And a small group of people, most of whom are well-connected and established staff members, put in requests. The unseen barriers (relational awkwardness, not wanting to load up a coach who might be under the pump) were taken out of the equation.

We are regularly make adjustments for our students when they feel unable to participate and become great at removing those barriers for our students. It can equally be so vital to get on top of removing barriers for staff.

Note: This is my first blog post in a gazillion years: and it’s fair to say that my experience and reflections are quite different from the older posts on the site here – which was really started to help me reflect on the beginning of my teaching journey. So don’t judge anything older on here too harshly!